posted
(The following is from the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation -ldfighter)
Jan 20, 2008 12:15 ET Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation: Feds Say "No" to Access to Information Request on Serious Health Matter; National Security Cited
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Jan. 20, 2008) -
"The federal government denies Access to Information request. They say it is a matter of "national security", so Canadians have no right to records that measure the ability of our national medical laboratory to detect the fastest growing animal to human disease in the northern hemisphere
The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation decided they must find out how well our federal medical laboratory in Winnipeg does at detecting Lyme disease in humans.
Fully certified, proficiency tested and accredited laboratories in the U.S. have been finding that several thousand Canadians are actually positive for lyme disease after a negative Canadian test. Many of these Canadians had been given diagnoses ranging from multiple sclerosis, mental illness, to chronic fatigue syndrome.
The successful outcome of lyme disease treatment demands early diagnosis, so the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation sought to find out why Canadian lab tests in so many instances are negative followed by a positive U.S. test. These patients only then get the treatment they need. The proof is in the pudding, they do remarkably well in recovery after having been left sick for years in many instances.
Proficiency testing of laboratories measuring their ability to detect specific disease is required in most jurisdictions for laboratories to retain certification. The U.S. labs are proficiency tested and have excellent results. We expect similar results from our federal labs but we will never know if a small group of people who hold the lives of Canadians in their hands has their way.
If denying our request because of "national security" sounds absurd to you, it did to us as well. Something is going on. One provincial access to information request revealed minutes of a meeting involving provincial medical authorities and our federal laboratory representatives who discuss hundreds of unique cases of lyme disease in only a three year period in that province. Officially, in that same three year period the reported number of cases was zero.
We had also previously asked to be allowed to participate in proficiency testing of our Canadian labs but that request was quickly denied as well..."
posted
Holey moley. This is amazing. A lot of incompetence is hiding behind "national security." This is the reason why govt officials like to classify everything possible, so no one can see how often they goof.
[ 20. January 2008, 02:25 PM: Message edited by: lou ]
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
HOG WASH! i agree with lou's comments! so sorry to read this nonsense!
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Truthfinder
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8512
posted
Boy, this is very disturbing....
Well, my hat is off to the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation for pushing the issue and attempting to get to the bottom of this...
-------------------- Tracy .... Prayers for the Lyme Community - every day at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and 9 p.m. Eastern Time � just take a few moments to say a prayer wherever you are�. Posts: 2966 | From Colorado | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
Seems to me the security of a nation rests on the health of its citizens. So this is double-speak. The opposite is needed: very good strong labs instead of useless ones. Keep pushing, Canlyme...
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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luvs2ride
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8090
posted
Thomas Jefferson said "When the government fears the people it is democracy. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny."
Withholding this kind of information sounds tyranical to me.
Luvs
-------------------- When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, there will be Peace. Posts: 3038 | From america | Registered: Oct 2005
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
VEWY VEWY interesting!*)*!)*!
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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Greatcod
Unregistered
posted
I suspect a bureaucrat just blurted out the truth. From day one, the incidence and severity of Lyme Disease has been covered up, denied in the US, and now in Canada. England as well.
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posted
I think there actually is more denial (cover up) in Canada than in almost any other country in the world in regards to Lyme disease. Over the last 10 years, according to FOI documents I have received, Canada has had a grand total of 320 cases. There are provinces that are just to the north of Lyme endemic states, such as Quebec, that do not even have one reported case - ever.
Although Canada has 1/10 the population of the US it would make sense if we had 1/10 of the cases - which would amount to roughly 15,000 -17,000 cases (over 10 years) and we know that in the US cases are likely under-reported by a factor of 6-12 fold.
There are provinces such as Manitoba, where over 400 doctor-diagnosed cases of Lyme disease "disappeared" off the provincial records - Manitoba had until recently, when they could duck and weave no longer, declared itself "Lyme-free". Lyme activists have had meetings with senior health bureacrats who actually said that reporting Lyme disease would be bad for tourism.
We do not even randomly test for Lyme disease with Canadian blood Services - I know because I talked with one of their senior people and they couldn't give a good god damn.
What Health Canada is interested in is covering their butt - nothing else.
Oh, and one last thing. I FOI'ed my provincial CDC and the director in charge of Lyme disease - deleted all of his documents relating to Lyme disease in direct contravention of the law. I was told this by a sympathetic FOI officer.
It will break open one day - when we apply enough political pressure or get a "smoking gun" document.
The other thing that is pathetically funny, is after the FOI request was submitted Canadian Health authorities started saying publicly that our blood tests weren't that good after all. I think they were terrified we would get the information from the FOI confirming that the blood proficiency tests in Canada are abysmally awful and then they engaged in some pre-emptive *** covering.
It truly is beyond pathetic - criminal I would say.
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